The Bedouin adapted to nomadic desert life by breeding camels, Arabian horses, and sheep; but they have also grown date palms and other crops, usually hiring others to perform agricultural labour. Traditionally, finding grazing and water were the main concerns of the Bedouin, in addition to raiding to seize horses and camels. Nomads also interacted with the settled population through religious rituals (e.g., the hajj [pilgrimage] to Mecca), long-distance commerce, and the exchange of poetry and other cultural activities. Hereditary tribal Bedouin groups claimed certain lands as their dirah (tribal territory), where their flocks could graze and water. As international boundaries were drawn in the desert, governments increasingly limited tribal mobility. Saudi authorities encouraged the Bedouin to settle in oases, and after 1925 the Saudi ruler ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (generally known as Ibn Saʿūd) prevented intertribal raiding. Tribal loyalties have declined in political importance but have remained significant in such areas as marriage. Modernization has brought much change, particularly for those Bedouin who have settled. Many have moved to urban areas, and the number of purely nomadic people is now only a small proportion of the desert’s total population; other former nomads have settled in or near desert villages, thereby keeping open the option of part-time nomadism.

Bedouin with a young goat in central Qatar. M. Ericson/Ostman Agency

Western cultural influence accelerated with the discovery of petroleum in 1936 and led to the introduction of such modern conveniences as airplanes, telephones, and televisions. Trucks have been of particular importance for the Bedouin, who use them for many purposes, including transporting sheep to market, moving fodder and water to sites where animals raised for meat are herded, moving small numbers of animals from one grazing area to another, and traveling between cities and villages. Increased mobility has meant that, while fewer Bedouin children attend schools than the children of settled peoples, the nomads have begun to gain greater access to education and other public services. Women remain mostly in the home, but Bedouin men often travel great distances to find work; most families derive some income from relatives who serve in the military.

Economy

Resources

The greatest natural resource of the Arabian Desert is its underground water supply, which—as it remains virtually unreplenished because of low rainfall—in effect consists of Pleistocene-age waters that are now being tapped. Modern techniques have been used by the governments of Arab countries to develop water sources and to irrigate soils for farming. Desalinization plants built along the coasts produce great quantities of fresh water from seawater, making the Arabian Peninsula one of the leading regions of the world employing that technology.

The most-significant long-term effect on the region—both economically and politically—was the discovery of petroleum in 1936 in eastern Saudi Arabia. Commercial oil production began in 1938, only to be curtailed by World War II. Since the war many new oil fields and refineries have been brought into operation throughout the region, notably the vast Al-Ghawār oil field in the northeastern Rubʿ al-Khali. Their production potential is measured in the millions of barrels per day, and reserves are enormous. Reserves of natural gas also have been exploited on a large scale. Although output levels generally have been high, they have been subject to fluctuations in world oil markets and to political turmoil in the region—including events such as the Persian Gulf War in 1990–91, the Iraq War in 2003–11, and the conflict in Syria and Iraq in the 2010s.

Transportation

Travel today in the Arabian Desert is easy and rapid. Instead of the slow camelcaravan, automobiles now roar across desert terrains. Jets fly overhead, and the railroad from Al-Dammām on the Persian Gulf to Riyadh covers the distance in a few hours. Paved, multilane highways cross the desert and link the chief Saudi cities, while narrower roads connect almost all towns and villages to the national network. New roads have been built into Asir, making that province and its fine agricultural produce accessible to urban markets. A Saudi Arabian government-owned airline offers flights between towns in different regions of the desert.

About four-fifths of the Arabian Desert is accessible to cars, regardless of roads. Essential equipment includes sand tires, two-way radios, and the capacity to carry fuel, food, and water, as well as spare parts and camping gear.

Before the 18th century many Arabs but few Europeans had succeeded in penetrating the Arabian Desert, and few authors had written about it. Travel literature written in Arabic concentrated on the routes taken by pilgrimage caravans going to Mecca. Scientific exploration began in 1762 with a Danish expedition led by the German surveyor Carsten Niebuhr. In the 19th century British officers of the Indian colonial government undertook surveys of the surrounding seas and coasts.

Philby, H. Saint JohnH. Saint John Philby.From The Heart of Arabia, A Record of Travel and Exploration, Vol. 1, by H. St.J. B. Philby, 1922

The first important modern work on the geography of Arabia, Travels in Arabia Deserta (1888), was written by English traveler Charles M. Doughty. At the turn of the 20th century, Czech explorer Alois Musil traveled through northern Hejaz and Najd, mapping topography as he went. In 1917 H. St. John Philby, an official of the British Foreign Office who paid a visit to the sultan of Najd (later Ibn Saʿūd of Saudi Arabia), later became a Muslim, settled in Riyadh as a counselor to Ibn Saʿūd, and explored the Arabian Desert, writing detailed and accurate accounts of his travels. Another British official, T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”), who was an adviser to the Arabs during their World War I revolt, gained fame for his romantic writings about his exploits in the region. Many individuals traveled in limited parts of the desert; the most notable among them was British traveler Wilfred Thesiger, who crisscrossed the Rubʿ al-Khali after World War II.

After World War II, geographic and geologic exploration intensified and was accompanied by vast aerial photographic surveys, from which the first accurate maps of the peninsula were prepared and published between 1956 and 1965. Those efforts were later supplemented with detailed satellite imagery from Landsat and other orbiting spacecraft. The countries of the region subsequently have undertaken other surveys of the land and its mineral resources.